Page 70 of Fastlander Fealty

Katrina sat on a picnic table off to the side, gold glowing eyes focused on Silver.

Shit.

Silver hesitated, and then made her way to her. Katrina, however, moved her position before Silver reached the picnic table. She drifted toward the fence, and Silver paused. She wasn’t going to get ambushed. Katrina was wearing a baseball cap low over her gold eyes, her brunette waves cascading down her shoulders in her spaghetti strap black tank top. She’d always been a poised beauty. She made sense as a Queen for Rook.

When she stopped by an empty vendor booth and turned, waiting for Silver, she looked around, making sure she didn’t sense Rook, or any of his army. Still, she only smelled Katrina.

Silver sauntered over to her. “What do you want?”

“I mean…I wish you were dead,” Katrina answered honestly.

“Great. Consider me dead.”

Katrina canted her head and looked Silver up and down thoughtfully. “You sure feel different.”

“It’s amazing what a few days outside of the Pride can do for your self-esteem. Is Rook here?”

Katrina bit the corner of her lip, considering her answer, but at last said, “He’s close, but not here.”

“Why are you here, Kat?” she murmured, using the nickname she’d called her by when they had been friends once upon a time.

“He asked me to talk to you.”

“And you’ll go back to him without me, and you can tell him I appear and feel different. You should both know I’m not coming back.”

“I don’t think he’s holding his breath for that anymore,” Katrina said. “You weren’t ever that important.”

“How was your Queen ceremony?” she asked, unable to keep the bitterness from her tone.

“It would’ve been perfect, except there was a ghost there.”

“What ghost?”

“You.”

Silver looked back toward the portable bathrooms, but didn’t see any of the Fastlanders. “You can have him, you know? I don’t want Rook. I don’t want anything to do with the Pride.”

“I tried to get him not to cut you,” Katrina said suddenly.

Shocked, Silver asked, “What do you mean?”

“He had a meeting with the Pride when he dragged you back. He talked about the traitor mark tradition, and how long it had been since it had been performed in the Holland Pride, and how he would make you an example.” There was actual emotion in Katrina’s eyes. “I voted against it.”

“Yet you watched him do it,” she murmured. “I remember. You were there.”

Katrina chewed the corner of her lip and looked toward the fence. She inhaled a harsh sound, like her lungs were protesting. “I left my phone in the truck.” She lifted her fingers to do air quotes as she amended, “Accidentally. He wanted me to record our conversation. You need a new phone. He’s still in yours,” she whispered so quietly, Silver almost missed it.

Silver pulled her phone out and turned it off completely.

Katrina nodded. “There’s going to be a war, but I don’t know when. Rook is building an army. It’ll take time. We aren’t close yet.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Silver whispered.

“Because I was wrong. You tried to warn me, and I was wrong. And look at you,” she said, gesturing to Silver’s face. “He maimed you for everyone to see. But you’re still here, smiling. I’ve watched you with them. I came here so angry, but I’ve spent the whole night watching you. Watching the Fastlanders laugh with you. Not forced, and not in a manipulative way. They like you. Once upon a time I liked you. You shouldn’t come back, Silver. You should let me be Queen, and you should be with your Fastlanders as long as you can. You should be happy at the end of your life.”

“Why are you calling it the end of my life?” she asked softly.

“Because I know the army Rook is building.” There were a hundred ghosts in her eyes. “It’s heavy, Silver. Losing you now in this way will make Rook worse. You’ve never seen an anger like his.”

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